Allie

Rome Trippin

Allie

I've created this blog as an easy way for friends and family to follow my Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean out of Civitavecchia in April 2010, as well as the preparation in the months approaching sailing date. This will be my first cruise...first of many, if the contagious cruising-theorists are to be believed.

Obviously I got less excited about chronicling the planning steps of this trip, but I thought I'd say a little something now. I hate volcanoes. They really really really suck. As of right now, flights along the same path with the same timing as ours are still leaving from the east coast to Rome. Just a couple more days, Rome needs to hang in & not get ashed out. I don't care if we get stuck in Europe once we're there. I'm totally fine with that. Things are optimistic enough now that I can get excited, start packing, really believe that we're going. If anything changes for the worse now, we'll be at the end of a long, long line of passengers affected, and even if we could get to Europe, there's no telling when it ... read more

One more check off the list, countless more to go. Made our reservation today for the Mecenate Palace Hotel through Orbitz. I honestly believe it's the best possible deal....cost, location, reviews. I think we'll be very happy with it. Airfair is still a pain in the butt....allowing for time to disembark the ship on the last day, we can't likely fly out until afternoon. NO flights make it out of Europe without a 12 hour or more layover when leaving that late. Boo. So still exploring that portion of things. I have some rough ideas on tour itineraries for Rome. Unfortunately lots of neat tours aren't offered during the 2 days we have to sight see. Started communicating with fellow cruisers on the Cruise Critic message boards. Many of them are putting together their own more ... read more

Planning. My addiction and the bane of my existence. I'm knee-deep in various tour websites. I've got three firefox windows open, and at least 7 tabs in each. I've got a word document open for taking notes. I feel like I'm drowning in dates, times, euros, dollars... This really isn't relaxing, but I gain some pleasure from it anyway. When I'm done I'll be confident I've arranged the best little whirlwind Roman stint there ever could be. For us, anyway. On the cruise end of things....there's really not much. We were booked on the 11th of this month and the deposit has been made. I've already switched dining preferences once. 915 is just too dang late. As sailing date gets closer and shore excursions become available, I'm sure I'll explode. Contemplating options like I am now ... read more